


built for you, made for me

by Spudato



Category: RWBY
Genre: Android AU, Multi, Originally Posted on Tumblr, queer writing by a queer writer for queer readers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-31
Updated: 2019-03-31
Packaged: 2019-12-29 19:07:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18300206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spudato/pseuds/Spudato
Summary: Remnant may be home to more simple, honest souls, but some souls aren't so simple to explain. When the androids in Atlas gained sentience, it called into question what it meant to be a person, to be human, to be alive. Wars of philosophy and morality were waged, hands grasping for the truth in an uncertain world... but this tale isn't about the years that were spent in both wonder and turmoil alike. This is about what came after: a story about two androids and their girlfriend, and how it feels to fall in love when you're not sure you've ever felt it before.Short pieces that were (and will be) posted on Tumblr. Inspired by 'Detroit: Almost Human', but in the spiteful and gay sort of way.





	1. accident

**Author's Note:**

> After Detroit: Almost Human came out, I went on a bit of spite-fuelled bender where I demanded to know where the stories about androids just Bein' Domestic Androids were. I happened to get an original piece published in which I wrote Exactly That, but also I wanted soft frappuccino shenanigans on top. So here they are.

“Velv- Velvet, look. I’m fine. Literally fine! See?”

Velvet doesn’t look back down, instead scanning the length of the street with narrowed eyes, the remains of Blake’s legs smeared across the tarmac. Shards of white debris and tatters of black denim pad the underside of her shoes, scattered right across the width of the road, and a river of Blake’s blood is already slowly trickling down towards the drain.

There’s a whimper, and Velvet glances over to see Weiss slowly sliding down the wall on the opposite side of the street, both hands clapped over her mouth as she stares, wide-eyed, at the upper half of Blake’s body that remains mostly intact. Blake sees her, waves. She doesn’t wave back.

“I’ll do a check anyway,” Velvet says automatically, running through the protocol in her head, and she squats down to survey the damage. Blake’s been torn apart from the hip downward with their guts hanging out like something from a nightmare, but Velvet’s more concerned about the price it’ll cost to fix them back up again, and the numbers aren’t looking great.  “System, run a health check and forward results to me.”

Blake’s amber eyes shift, going the empty, vacant way they did when personality was superseded by programming, and their voice rings out in monotone syllables, jaw stationary. “Two processing cores are damaged and/or missing from the unit. Both legs are damaged and/or missing from the unit. 92% damage has been sustained on the lower abdomen and hips; mobility has been lost. All central processes functional and resuming. Memory storage retained. Backup maintained. Report forwarded to unit VS-200-118. Would you like to shutdown or reboot the system?”

“Cancel that, I’ll carry Blake out of here.”

“Understood.”

As Blake blinks themself back into awareness, there’s a groan and a wail of metal against tarmac, and a man staggers out of the driver’s seat of the heavy truck that’s careened right into the window of a cafe. He’s looking about wildly, dazed and confused, until his eyes land of the trail of black and blue blood that’s caught under the tyres, oil and coolant a heady scent that permeates the air. Standing up again, Velvet clicks her fingers to focus his attention on her, and then she points down to Blake with a snarl.

“Hey, dipshit! You got, like, two-fifth of the way into killing my friend!”


	2. here come the gay thoughts

“So, I have a, uh, question.”

There’s a second of silence, and then Velvet pulls herself out of her internet browser to offer Weiss her full attention. She  _ could _ do both at the same time, of course, but she feels like it’s sort of rude to listen to a person whilst also watching every single cat video ever created, even as a notification pops up in her peripheral vision to say that Blake’s linked her to yet  _ another. _ “Sure.”

Weiss pauses, and then rubs at her forehead, sorting through her words with a few whispered syllables before she sighs. “I know this sounds bizarre to ask when my father’s company quite literally manufactured you, but, um. Did you… acquire your sentience over time? Or did you, um, have it click into place all at once?”

Velvet stares at Weiss for a long moment, which turns into two, and then three. She tries her best not to laugh when Weiss squints at her, though she fails pretty drastically when she launches into a full-blown cackle instead. Blake doesn’t contribute anything very useful either, lounging on a beanbag at the other end of the room, although that’s probably because they’re preoccupied with plugging themself into for some recharge time, toying with the connection on the back of their neck.

“What!” Weiss squeaks out when Velvet can’t quite muffle her giggles. “I don’t know! I just thought you might have an answer!”

“S-sorry! I just- the way you phrased it-” Velvet waves her hand in the air like she can physically dissipate her words. “Like… ‘yes, officer, I acquired my sentience legally. No, I did- _ I didn’t _ rob of a store of a perfectly good litre of sentience, sir, no sir, haha-”

Weiss’s pale skin flushes red, and she crosses her arms with a huff as she curls up on the sofa, the overly new fabric creasing under her weight. Until they’d met Weiss, the apartment Blake and Velvet share is almost as new as the day they’d moved in, since androids don’t need much for comfort other than a recharge port and a healthy backup system. Still, it felt right to  _ live _ somewhere, to pin up posters onto the walls and watch TV together or dance to the radio, even if their kitchen hadn’t really been  _ touched _ until Weiss had started staying with them more often than not. It’s nice, to feel… human.

“I was just curious,” Weiss mutters, shoulders hunched up. “Sorry your sense of humour takes up most of your stupid storage space.”

Reaching over, Velvet runs a hand over Weiss’s back, feeling the sharp curves of bone and muscle under her shirt. She’s lithe and short and small, so small, and Velvet’s smile drops. “Hey, it’s a good question. I’m sorry.”

Weiss looks back over her shoulder, and Velvet cracks another little grin. “Also, you’re not  _ wrong _ about that.”

Motioning to Blake -- who is now sprawled out on their back, staring blankly at the ceiling -- Velvet considers them for a moment. They’re  _ processing _ right now, sorting through storage to delete the stuff that’s clogging up their memory, although they use it as an excuse not to participate in conversation more often than not. “Blake’s one of those fancy prototypes I’m sure you know about. The, uh, 800-779? All those scientists and inventors of yours trying to see if they could design  _ imagination _ from the ground up.” Leaning back, Velvet tucks one leg under the other. “They were only meant to be temporary, you know? See if they could paint an image, write a story, make a song, form opinions of their own, and then scrap the lot and start again. Only then the big pro-’droid movement started up, and here they are now. But they had sentience more or less from the get-go, you know? It clicked them for them because their AI was already developing ideas of its own.”

“And you?”

Looking down at her hands, Velvet contemplates herself for a second or two. She’s gone through a few different visual appearances over the years, settling now on browned, sun-kissed skin and a thick smattering of freckles over every inch, long umber hair running right down her back. All androids are made to look exactly the same, their shells made of carbon and aluminium and plastic, black and grey and white and silver, but now most blend right into the population, trying their best to fit in and be as  _ real _ as everyone else. Though, as to exactly what being  _ real _ actually means? Velvet’s still working that part out. “Me?”

“Was it sudden for you?”

Velvet makes a hand-wriggle that could mean literally anything. “Kind of? Not at first. I don’t think there ever  _ was _ a moment of, like, ‘oh shit, I’m a person now’. I was a labour model designed to do all the heavy lifting in worksites and stuff, so I wasn’t exactly as advanced in the brain as Blake is. But… after we met, they helped me start puttin’ all the pieces together, just as I got the legal right to quit the job I was  _ made _ for. The rest, well, that’s what you got in front of you.”

There’s a small quiet that settles between them, Weiss humming under her breath, and then Velvet laughs to herself. “I think it’s- it might be ‘cause I found them super hot. Like, everything about ‘em was sweet and cute and tender. I kinda went… ‘oh! I shouldn’t be able to think that!’ Romance and attraction aren’t really things I was programmed to feel.”

Weiss blinks. “But the entire concept of a limitless imagination… is?”

“You’d know best,  _ Schnee.” _ Velvet blows a raspberry, and Weiss shoves at her arm halfheartedly. “Besides, they didn’t exactly nail it on their first go? Blake’s better at, like, visualising stuff than I am, but creative thought didn’t really become a  _ thing _ until we became sentient? By that point, the whole experiment was moot either way.”

“Huh,” Weiss says, pondering for a moment as her eyes flick over to the motionless Blake and back to Velvet. “So, let me get this right. You’re saying having gay thoughts… made you become  _ alive?” _

“Hey! If you ever fall in love too, you’ll know that shit’s for real!”


End file.
